email: tony@lathes.co.uk
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ARS Watchmakers' Lathe
Other lathes for watchmakers

Manufactured byAtelier de Construction de Rennes at 22 Boulevard de la Tour-d'Anvergne in Rennes, France, the nickel-plated 40 mm centre height ARS was of the "Geneva" pattern with a round bed, flat at the back and based on the well-known Lorch "Triumph" - an example of which can also be seen, amongst other varieties of Lorch, here.
Bored to take 8 mm collets the spindle ran in double-cone bronze bearings and was driven by a pulley overhung on its left-hand end - a simple design that has proved entirely satisfactory and much easier to produce that one with the pulley between the bearings. In addition to the makers of cheap and cheerful lathes for impecunious amateurs - e.g. Jason, Clisby, Machinex and Hobbymat - makers of precision lathes using the system (though decades behind Lorch) included various models of the Pultra, IME, Coronet, Nichols, UND and Saacke
Like most makers of watchmakers' lathes ARS offered their lathes complete in a fitted box with a wide range of useful accessories including electric motors and a traditional clamp-to-the-bench handwheel drive.
If you have an ARS lathe, the writer would be interested to hear from you